Experimental estimate of a classicality witness via a single measurement

The perception that quantum correlations can still appear in separable states has opened exciting new possibilities regarding their use as a resource in quantum information science. Quantifying such quantum correlations involves the complete knowledge of the system's state and numerical optimization procedures. Thus, it is natural to seek methods involving fewer measurements that indicate the nature of the correlations in a system. Here we propose a classicality witness that can be accurately estimated via statistics from a single measurement and perform an experiment to explore the utility of this witness for quantum states with different types of correlations.     

Electroactive Organic Building Blocks for the Chemical Design of Functional Porous Frameworks (MOFs and COFs) in Electronics

Electroactive organic molecules have received a lot of attention in the field of electronics because of their fascinating electronic properties, easy functionalization and potential low cost towards their implementation in electronic devices. In recent years, electroactive organic molecules have also emerged as promising building blocks for the design and construction of crystalline porous frameworks such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent-organic frameworks (COFs) for applications in electronics. Such porous materials present certain additional advantages such as, for example, an immense structural and functional versatility, combination of porosity with multiple electronic properties and the possibility of tuning their physical properties by post-synthetic modifications. In this Review, we summarize the main electroactive organic building blocks used in the past few years for the design and construction of functional porous materials (MOFs and COFs) for electronics with special emphasis on their electronic structure and function relationships. The different building blocks have been classified based on the electronic nature and main function of the resulting porous frameworks. The design and synthesis of novel electroactive organic molecules is encouraged towards the construction of functional porous frameworks exhibiting new functions and applications in electronics.     

Korringa relaxation time of magnetic ion system near a two-dimensional electron gas

Spin relaxation of Mn ions in a (Cd,Mn)Te quantum well with quasi-two-dimensional carriers (Q2DEG) is investigated. The mechanism of energy transfer is spin-flip scattering of Mn spin with electrons making transitions between spin subbands accompanied by a change in the Mn spin. A calculation of the spin-flip scattering rate shows that the Mn spin relaxation rate is proportional to the coupling constant squared, the density of states squared, and the electron temperature, the so called Korringa relaxation rate. It was found that for small Mn ion concentration, the relaxation time ≈10−7-10−6s is in a good agreement with experimental results. Moreover, the relaxation rate scales with L⁻², L being the well width, and it can be enhanced over its value in bulk.     

Bundle Relaxation and Primal Recovery in Unit Commitment Problems. The Brazilian Case

We consider the inclusion of commitment of thermal generation units in the optimal management of the Brazilian power system. By means of Lagrangian relaxation we decompose the problem and obtain a nondifferentiable dual function that is separable. We solve the dual problem with a bundle method. Our purpose is twofold: first, bundle methods are the methods of choice in nonsmooth optimization when it comes to solve large-scale problems with high precision. Second, they give good starting points for recovering primal solutions. We use an inexact augmented Lagrangian technique to find a near-optimal primal feasible solution. We assess our approach with numerical results.     

Synthesis and conformational studies on hexa-O-alkyl p-unsubstituted calix[6]arenes

[structure: see text] In this article we describe the selective O-benzylation of para-unsubstituted calix[6]arene 1 in rings 1 and 4 (2a-c) and the subsequent alkylation of phenol groups with alpha-haloesters (methyl esters 3a, 3c, and 3e; tert-butyl esters 3b, 3d, and 3f) to determine the effect of these groups on their conformational behavior. 2D NMR studies at 188 K reveal that compounds 2a-c, 3b, 3d, and 3f are less flexible, showing a 1,2,3-alternate conformation. The same conformation has been observed in the solid state.     

Determination of sulfate in natural and residual waters by turbidimetric flow-injection analysis

A turbidimetric flow-injection system was developed for the determination of sulfate in natural and residual water samples, with no previous treatment, using spectrophotometric detection. The precipitating agent, 7.0% (w/v) barium chloride solution prepared in 0.10% (w/v) polyvinyl alcohol, was added by using the merging-zones approach. A 100 mg/L sulfate solution in 0.07M nitric acid was mixed with the sample before it entered the injection loop to improve the detection limit, provide in-line pH adjustment, and prevent the interference of some anionic species. The relative standard deviations of the results were between 1.4 and 3.0% and were in agreement with results obtained by the reference method. Samples within a linear concentration range of 10-120 mg SO4(2-)/L can be analyzed at a rate of 40/h. The detection limit is 5 mg SO4(2-)/L.